Sonic Chronicles: The Deep Truth
by SonicKnuxMiku25096
Summary: The third book in my Sonic Chronicles series: After Rachel said no to Sonic's proposal, she must yet again choose between the hedgehog and the echidna, but another danger lurks around the corner to control her forever...
1. Chapter 1, 2 and 3

Sonic Chronicles: The Deep Truth

Chapter One:

Rachel took off as fast as her legs would let her go. She was crying non-stop and she never looked back. She hated herself for what she just did. She had humiliated him in front of two of his best friends. He was probably heart-broken. She fell to the ground near Angel Island, crying into her hands.

Sonic stood up and stared at the ring, totally blown over. He couldn't believe that she had said no. He had been so sure she would've said yes. Thunder walked over to him uncertainly.

"Sonic?" he asked softly. Sonic kept staring at the ring as if it would give him any answers.

"I-I thought she would say yes," he replied, "Why did she say no?" Knuckles thought he had an idea. She was still in love with him. Even though she had broken up with him, it was just as she said before she left: she still had feelings for him. Did this mean that she still couldn't permanently bond with one of them? He realized that he could still be with her. Now that she had rejected Sonic, she was probably never going to speak to him again. So, now was his chance to go after her. Knuckles smiled to himself and ran after her. Sonic looked up and saw him running away. Anger started to build in him as he realized the truth. Rachel was still in love with Knuckles. That's why she had been so upset when he had been captured, and that's why she couldn't accept the ring. He clutched the ring harder than ever. _I guess that means Knuckles and I are back to being rivals again._

Knuckles caught up to Rachel and saw her crying into her hands on the ground. He ran over to her and knelt by her side. She immediately knew that he was there and cried into his chest. He placed his arms around her and tried to calm her down. He felt a weird sense of energy inside of her when he hugged her. He told her that everything would be ok. She tried to stop crying to tell him something.

"I-I couldn't say yes to him….. I-I still love you….. H-how is he ever going to talk to me again though? I-I love both of you, and I can't commit to just one of you….. W-what am I going to… Oh Knuckles!" She cried harder and held onto him tighter. He wanted to help her out. She probably didn't have anywhere to go now that Sonic was upset with her. He smiled slightly, realizing that he could easily take her back.

"Well, you probably don't have anywhere to stay, do you?" he asked. She shook her head sadly. He smiled. "Well, you could stay with me on Angel Island. You'll be safe there, I promise." She looked at him and sniffled.

"Y-you'd do that for me?"

"Of course! Come on, we're right here, so let's go!" She smiled at him and let him pick her up and walk her towards the floating island. He held her close and thought, _I bet Sonic will come back. I don't know when, but as of right now, I'll have to get Rachel on my side. Not that she already isn't._

Chapter Two:

Sonic started heading back to his house, thinking hard about what to do. He had to get Knuckles out of the picture so that Rachel would love him fully. He thought as hard as he could. He had already sent Thunder to spy on them to see what they were up to and where they were going. He assumed that Knuckles would take Rachel to Angel Island with him, but he wasn't sure. He wanted Rachel back, even though she had rejected him. Sonic thought and thought for a long time, never noticing the person following him close behind.

Thunder reached the edge of the cavern town known as Downunda. He looked up at the floating island where Rachel and Knuckles had just gone. He spread out his wings and took off towards the sky. He flew as fast as he could until he reached the edge. He slowly landed in the grass and looked around for a clue as to where they had went. He looked over and saw them both heading towards a small house near the Master Emerald. He followed them slowly and quietly.

Knuckles took Rachel to a house that he usually stayed in when he wasn't guarding the Master Emerald (which is mostly on bad weather days or at night). He glanced behind himself quickly, almost positive that they were being watched.

"Knux? You ok?" Rachel asked nervously. Knuckles turned back to her and smiled.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just paranoid, that's all," he replied calmly. Rachel smiled back and put herself closer to him. Knuckles felt something strange inside of him when he was near her. He led her inside and put her down on the couch.

"Just stay here for a little while, ok?" he said, turning to head back out the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Rachel asked nervously. He turned back to her and replied, "I'm just going to make sure that nobody else is around, that's all." Rachel grabbed his arm and brought him closer.

"Just be careful, all right?"

"Ok. I will." He leaned forward and kissed her. Rachel felt a weird boost of energy inside of her. He felt the same thing. He pulled back slightly and whispered, "I love you."

"I love you too," Rachel replied. Knuckles left feeling strangely happy. He looked around and noticed a bird running away. He heard loud noises slightly shaking the ground. He instantly knew who it was. He ran after him and caught him just in time. He grabbed his tail feathers and yanked him backwards.

"You can tell Sonic that he doesn't have to pay me a special visit since I've been gone, Thunder," he said viciously.

Sonic was about to turn the doorknob when a black form came rushing into him. He dodged just in time as it came running back. Sonic ran after it and instantly realized what he was in for. He ran a little faster to catch up to him. He ran side-by-side to a black and red hedgehog. Sonic grinned at him.

"Hey, faker," he said cheerfully, "haven't seen you in awhile." The other hedgehog glared at him with red eyes.

"You'd better be ready to lose this time."

"I'm always up for a fight, Shadow."

Chapter Three:

Thunder glared at Knuckles. "Well, aren't you just the king of the world now that you've returned to your precious island?"

"No. I just don't appreciate you trying to come here and spy on me," Knuckles shot back.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure that you didn't try and use the power of the Master Emerald to protect Rachel and try to be the hero, because I gotta tell ya, you always fail at that, especially that time you got your dad killed because you-.." _WHAM! _Knuckles punched him right in the face as hard as he could. He was shaking with fury at how Thunder just stood there and criticized him and reminded him of his failures. Yes, it was true that he had failed at helping people sometimes, but he always found a way to make up for it. Thunder fell backwards and rolled into a rock. He slowly got up to face Knuckles.

"Ok, well, it looks like I'm done here. I guess I can just leave you here to suffer from your own anger and sorrow."

Knuckles gritted his teeth, his eyes wide with fury and replied, "Good! Just make sure you never come back here just to insult me! Oh, and tell Sonic that he's going to have to come and get Rachel himself if he really wants her back."

"I'm not a messenger, but fine." Thunder ran off to the edge of the island and flew off towards the ground. Knuckles looked at him for a little while to make sure he was gone for good, then headed back towards the house.

Shadow and Sonic ran next to each other and cut each other off every once in a while. They ran up the rock walls and through the forests, never once getting tired. They fought for a long time, almost never saying a word, until Sonic broke the silence.

"What made you come and attack me so fast faker?"

"I saw you coming and figured that it was time to settle our little feud once and for all."

"Oh, I get it, no problem! Let's see who's better: the original, or the faker."

The two of them kept running faster and faster, appearing as a blue and red blur. They clashed into each other in the valley and hit each other over and over again with spin attacks. They tried slide kicking, punching, and charging, but nothing slowed them down. They tried to prove that one of them was better, but they couldn't knock each other down. They slid to a stop after several attempts but stayed in a ready position.

"So, Shadow, do you give up yet, because there's no way I'm giving up," Sonic said with a grin.

"I have no intention of giving up either. But I think I'll need some extra strength to beat you." Shadow stood up and started to glow the color of a deep red. His eyes started to burn like a fire. He started to float slightly off the ground. Sonic's eyes widened. _Oh, shoot. Not this! _Sonic knew what was coming before Shadow said a word.

"Chaos….." Shadow chanted, starting to glow even brighter, "… BLAST!" A red laser of chaos energy came blasting forward at Sonic before he had a chance to move. He went soaring backwards into the rock wall, leaving a giant crack as he stuck there for a few moments. He fell to the ground on his knees and slowly looked up, his face slightly bruised as another blast came towards him.


	2. Chapter 4, 5 and 6

Chapter Four:

Knuckles went inside to find Rachel sitting on the couch, staring at the floor. He went over to her and sat next to her. She looked over slowly at him, her eyes distant.

"What's wrong?" he asked cautiously. She stared into his eyes for a long time. It kind of creeped him out the way it seemed that she was looking into his mind. He felt a surge of energy leave his body. He shook violently and fell to the floor. Rachel looked at him with the same creepy stare, her eyes gleaming. Knuckles passed out and Rachel knelt to his side. She stroked his head softly. She felt his emotions filling up inside of her. He was angry, no, beyond fury, and he could barely control it. She felt the fury inside of him dissolve on her command. He woke up slowly, feeling as though a heavy force had just been lifted from his chest. He grunted and slowly rose to his hands and knees, too dizzy to stand. He stole a curious glance at Rachel, her eyes were no longer glowing, but she still had that same type of stare. Knuckles shook slightly, confused about what had just happened.

"How…? What…..? Why…..? What, what did you do to me?" he asked slowly. Rachel kept staring at him, but stroked his back lightly.

"I felt your anger. You had too much for your mind to handle," she replied mysteriously, "I had to release you from it quickly."

"But…. How did you know that I was so angry?"

"I am connected to you, remember?"

"What?" Oh, right. The whole "Rachel is connected to anything that has chaos energy in it". It had been a brief conversation that took place just before they had been separated. She had said that it had been just a plain theory, but now it seemed that she had been right. That meant that because he was a Guardian with chaos energy contained inside of him, he was automatically connected to Rachel. That's why he had felt a strange surge of energy when he kissed her. Knuckles slowly rose to his feet, still a little wobbly.

"So, you and I are connected, right?" Rachel nodded. "Well, then how does that explain how you could just release the anger out of me and make it disappear?"

"I have endless possibilities. I can do almost anything I want, except bring people back to life. Some witches can do that. Eggman put the combined strength of a little bit of each of these: the Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald, the Brotherhood of Guardians, and Enerjak."

_Geez, I thought my life was confusing. _Knuckles thought miserably.

"Well, I guess that explains a little bit, but still, that's a lot of power! How do you keep it all under control?" he asked.

"I can't always control it. I've had a few times where I went out of control. Sometimes, I become a little… distant, and mysterious…. At least, that's what Sonic told me."

Knuckles figured that this was one of those times. It wasn't the Rachel he knew. She was hiding all of her emotions, and she was acting really weird. A knock came at the door a few times. Knuckles turned towards it. Rachel blinked a few times and then shook her head, her eyes becoming normal again. She looked at the door nervously.

"I feel like the person behind that door has a decent amount of chaos energy. Be careful!" she warned him. He nodded, letting out a deep breath, relieved that she was back to normal. He slowly twisted the doorknob and opened it slowly. He looked outside, his eyes widening. "You!?" he shouted with anger.

Sonic rolled to the side and ran up to Shadow. He charged at him and drove right into his gut. Shadow folded forward and went back to normal. Sonic slammed him against a rock wall and then kicked him in the face as hard as he could. Shadow fell to the ground and grabbed Sonic's foot and threw him away. Sonic went flying through the air and then tumbled to the edge of a cliff. He fell off the edge and looked at the water below him. _Aw, shoot, why is it that whenever I'm in enough trouble, then there's always water!? _He thought miserably. He shut his eyes tight as he waited to hit the water, when he felt sharp claws grab his arms and bring him back up. He opened his eyes and smiled. "Thanks Thunder."

"Sure, whatever. Just make sure you don't get your head kicked in for good, then I don't have to keep saving you," Thunder replied grumpily. Sonic grinned wider.

"Sure, sure, just stay in case I need you, and then tell me what you found out about Knux and Rachel, so stick around."

"Fine, whatever." Thunder placed him on the ground and settled on the ground. Sonic looked at him for a split second.

"Whoa, what happened to your face? Don't tell me Knux slammed one of his iron fists above your beak." He teased. Thunder glared at him.

"Just drop it and focus on finding Shadow."

"Find him? He's right…" Sonic looked over and noticed that Shadow was nowhere to be seen.

Chapter Five:

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" Knuckles shouted even louder.

"Who is it?" Rachel asked as she walked to the door. Just as she got a glimpse at the stranger, Knuckles punched him in the face. He stumbled backwards onto the ground.

"Knuckles! Why did you…?" Knuckles put a protective arm in front of her.

"Stay away from him!" he commanded. Rachel looked around him at the stranger on the ground. He was an albino echidna with silver bandages wrapped around his hands and feet. His eyes were black where the white part is usually at and yellow pupils. He had small spectacles at the end of his face near his nose and a black cape. There were black stripes in the top of his head in a zig-zag pattern. He rose up slowly and grinned sardonically. He took a slight bow.

"Good day, Guardian," he said giving Knuckles a sarcastic look. Knuckles gave him a spiteful glare then pushed Rachel farther behind him.

"What do you want, Finitevus?" he asked through gritted teeth. Finitevus slowly rose and adjusted his glasses.

"Well, it appears that my laboratory in Downunda was completely destroyed from the inside. All of my work has been crushed except for my warp rings," he replied pulling out a gold ring, "and I have no other place to go to rebuild my work. All I have left is my research and the warp rings. So, I was wondering if you would let me build a new lab here on Angel Island and stay here for a little while until…"

"THERE IS NO WAY ON MOBIUS I WOULD EVER LET YOU STAY ON THIS ISLAND!" Knuckles shouted as he took a step closer to him. Rachel gently placed her hands on his shoulders. "Knuckles…"

"You're lucky enough to have gotten this far!" he stated. Finitevus grinned wickedly and pointed towards Rachel as Knuckles tried to grab him.

"Now, now, you'd best calm down Guardian," he said in a sad-but-creepy tone, "You don't want to make that pretty girl cry do you?"

"Wait…what are you…?" Knuckles turned around to see Rachel staring at the ground and shaking slightly. She had tears in her eyes that were slowly starting to run down her face. _Oh, crap, I forgot that Rachel hates fighting and yelling. _He remembered. He glared at Finitevus and went over to Rachel. He held her close and told her to calm down. She sniffled softly then apologized to him. He held her hand as he turned back to Finitevus.

"I'm not letting you stay here or anywhere else on this island, so I suggest you kick yourself off this island, or I will for you!" Rachel looked at him pleadingly.

"I think he should stay here," she said softly enough for only Knuckles to hear.

"WHAT!?" he yelled. Finitevus grinned. Rachel looked away.

"Well, he doesn't have anywhere to go, right? I mean, I feel bad for him. We can't just leave him in the middle of nowhere, can we?"

"Yes we can!"

"Knux, please, can we just talk about it for a little bit?" Knuckles gritted his teeth, not wanting to upset Rachel, but at the same time wanting to make sure that Finitevus was gone. He glared at the albino echidna.

"You stay right here, and if you move, I swear I'll punch your head off," Knuckles declared. He turned around to go inside, holding Rachel's arm.

"Um, excuse us for a second," she said politely. Finitevus laughed softly but cruelly and tossed a warp ring in the air.

Sonic and Thunder ran around the valley for what felt like ages looking for Shadow. He was nowhere to be found within their area. Sonic sighed.

"Well, I guess Shadow gave up or something. Now, tell me about what happened when you spied on Rachel and Knux."

Thunder groaned. "Fine. So, Knuckles was trying to comfort Rachel after she ran off crying when she rejected you….. Sorry, probably shouldn't have said that… Well, he offered to take her to Angel Island with him, and she gladly agreed. He took her up there and led her to a house near a mountain. After that, I didn't see Rachel at all anymore, but Knuckles came out and clobbered me in the face and told me that you didn't have to pay him a special visit, but you would have to come and get Rachel yourself."

Sonic pondered on it for a little bit. He smiled. "Ok. If Knux wants me to get Rachel myself, I'd be glad to go and take her back! Now, one more thing. Is there a reason why he hit you in the face?" he asked. Thunder looked away angrily.

"Well, I might have put his dad and his past failures into the conversation."

"YOU WHAT?! Are you out of your mind? How many times do I have to tell you not to bring up Knux's dad in front of him, or his past failures? Geez, no wonder he hit you so hard. I would have to say that you deserved it."

"Are you fighting with Knuckles for Rachel's love or not?"

"Yes, but you still have to be careful about what you say. You know how hot-headed he is. I suggest you start trying to get on his good side."

Thunder scoffed at him. "I guess that makes you special for being one of his closest friends. Oh wait, you're not anymore!"

Sonic grinned and laughed. "I will be later once we get this whole Rachel-thing cleared up."

"Will it ever get cleared up?" Thunder asked.

Chapter Six:

Knuckles closed the door behind them. He took a deep breath and told himself not to get too upset. He turned towards Rachel.

"We can't let him stay here."

"Why not?"

"Because, he's the reason that my-,"

"Knux, look, no matter what he's done, we can't just leave him to die. I wouldn't feel right if that happened, would you?"

"Yes."

"Knuckles!"

"Look, I'm doing this to keep you safe! Dr. Finitevus is an evil scientist who is obsessed with chaos energy! He wants to destroy the world so that he can 'rebuild' it again! He's dangerous and I don't want him to hurt you!"

"I know that… But please, just this once, trust me! Please!" Rachel looked at him intently as he thought about it hard. There was no way Rachel would back down. He let out a deep sigh.

"Ok, fine, he can stay here." Rachel smiled and kissed him on the lips. His eyes were wide in shock and his face turned a light pink. Rachel hugged him close and whispered, "Thank you." Knuckles held onto her.

"But there's one thing I want you to do for me," he whispered in her ear. Rachel said nothing as she kept listening.

"Never, _ever _let him trick you into believing that I'm hurt or anything. It can only lead to trouble." He looked away shamefully. "I made that mistake and paid for it badly. Do you promise me you won't make the same mistake?" Rachel nodded.

"Of course." Knuckles kissed her softly and said, "I love you." He held her hand tight in his and led her outside. Finitevus was still standing there tossing a warp ring. He looked at them and asked "So, am I staying or going, Guardian?"

Knuckles tightened up as he replied, "You can stay, but only until you have some new laboratory built somewhere else! And I am not letting you build one on this island!" Finitevus bowed slightly and grinned wickedly.

"Thank you. I shall make sure that I find a place quick enough for you." He looked at Rachel, then at Knuckles, then at Rachel and Knuckles holding hands and smiled wider. He stood up and looked at Rachel more closely. He began to contemplate about her relationship with Knuckles. He smiled semi-sweetly at her.

"And who are you?" Rachel seemed a little shocked that he had actually paid attention to her. Knuckles held her tighter.

"Um, Rachel," she replied shyly. She was starting to feel his chaos powers become more apparent. But it was a kind of chaos energy that she had never felt before, but it felt a little bit like Knuckles' power, just more…negative. He smiled more sourly.

"I hear that you have the most amount of chaos energy inside of you than any other being has ever had inside themselves, correct?" Rachel nodded. Knuckles' mouth dropped open and his eyes widened in fright. _Crap! How does he know about that!?_ Finitevus grinned at Knuckles mockingly, as if saying, "Yep, I already have all the information I need to ruin your life!" He meandered up to the door and was about to go inside when he stopped abruptly. He turned to Rachel.

"It's very nice to meet you." He turned and went inside and laughed softly. Knuckles felt his blood pressure boil.

Sonic and Thunder went back to Sonic's house. Sonic went slower as he approached the door. He turned toward Thunder.

"Maybe you should go. You know, to check and see if Eggman is anywhere near here?"

"Yeah, I get it, you need to be alone, to think about how to get Rachel back." Thunder waved goodbye with his wing and ran off along the edge of the ocean. Sonic went into his house, thinking hard about how to get his love back. He laid down on his bed and smiled at the thought of having Rachel back. He looked out the window and saw the sun setting. He sighed and thought of the fact the she wouldn't be there for a while until he got her back. She was at least safe. But she was with his best friend instead. _Maybe Thunder was right. Maybe this conflict will never end._


	3. Chapter 7, 8 and 9

Chapter Seven:

The sun had already disappeared over the horizon, and Knuckles was still very uneasy. Rachel sat next to him on the couch and hugged his arm. "Are you ok?" she asked cautiously. Knuckles looked at her with anguish in his eyes.

"I don't know Rachel, I just…" he put his hands in his face and rested his elbows on his knees. "I'd hate to see you get hurt, that's all. I can't let anything happen, or I may never _ever _forgive myself." Rachel turned his face toward her. She kissed him lightly and put her arms around him. He did the same and held her close. She stopped just for a moment to tell him, "I can protect myself too, you know."

Knuckles smiled and replied, "I know, but I still worry that something terrible will happen to you." Rachel whispered, "Don't worry about that now." They kissed each other again and held each other close until Knuckles pulled away.

"It's late. You should go to bed and get some sleep. It's been a rough day for you." Rachel felt suddenly realized how tired she felt. It had felt like centuries ago when she had said no to Sonic's proposal. Sonic. She had almost completely forgotten about him. She rested her head in Knuckles' chest, full of drowsy and regretful feelings. She just wanted to stay with one, but when the other one came back, she was in a conflict again. She just wanted to stay happy, like she had been when she first met Sonic and Knuckles. Knuckles nudged her.

"You going to get up and walk or just stay here?" he asked smiling. Rachel smiled, her eyelids feeling too heavy to open again. "Carry me." Knuckles picked her up and brought her into her room and laid her down on her bed. He pulled the blanket over her and kissed her on the forehead and told her goodnight. He turned off her lights and Rachel fell into a deep sleep. Knuckles went out of the house and into the dark to walk over to the Master Emerald. He sat down with his legs crossing. He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, thinking of how perfect his life was now. He barely thought of Sonic or how he might try and take Rachel away.

Thunder ran around through the night in search of anything suspicious or evil. He looked left and right, up and down the entire area, but he couldn't find anything too apprehensive (he did run into a robot or twelve, but there was no base so he didn't worry). He went around for what felt like hours just searching. He looked behind himself to see if anyone was following him. _BOOM! _Thunder burst backwards and tumbled hundreds of feet. He shook himself and struggled to see what had hit him so hard. He looked up and saw Shadow surging forward. _WHAM! _Thunder got hit again and stumbled back again, unable to stop himself from falling off a cliff ("WHY IS THERE ALWAYS A CLIFF!?" he yelled angrily). He caught himself in the air with his wings and flew up back to the main ground. He saw Shadow standing there so he rushed forward and charged into him with his head. Thunder sent him flying into the sky with an uppercut punch. He grinned widely as the hedgehog came falling back down. He pounded him back into the ground, leaving a small crater. Thunder smiled menacingly as he kept Shadow flat on the ground.

"So, care to tell me why you're attacking me so suddenly?" Thunder asked.

Chapter Eight:

Rachel rubbed her tired eyes to persuade them to open. She stretched her arms out and yawned slightly as she sat up. She got out of bed slowly and walked out of her room and out of the house. She smiled as she looked at the completely flawless day. Her hair blew lightly in the breeze as she looked around for Knuckles. She walked around in her bare feet for a while, first heading to the Master Emerald. She walked silently, checking around as she went. When she got to the massive gem, Knuckles was nowhere to be found. Rachel walked up the stone steps and sat at the top. Her chin rested in her hands, she began to think hard about where he would be. She closed her eyes tight as she tried to use her powers to sense where he was. She concentrated harder and harder, a faint image starting to come into view. It looked like….like…where was it? Rachel felt a small tap on her shoulder and gasped and whirled around, almost falling off of the steps. She stared at Dr. Finitevus. He smiled "sweetly".

"Oh, I didn't mean to startle you! I seem to have interrupted something important!"

"Er-…oh. No, you're fine. I was just trying to find Knuckles. I haven't seen him anywhere."

"Oh. Well, he seemed to have…never mind. It would be best if I didn't worry you about that," he said icily. Rachel stood up.

"What are you talking about? Where's Knuckles?" she demanded. Finitevus grinned malevolently, not showing Rachel his face. He kept an even voice when he talked to her.

"Well, it seems as though Knuckles ran into some trouble and can't return here. At least, not until he finds a way out. I could show you where he is though, if you'd like," he stated. Rachel kept her expression calm. She knew that he was lying. It was just as Knuckles had said. He was trying to trick her. She sat back down on the steps.

"No thanks, I'm sure he'll be fine."

He walked over to her and replied, "Oh well, the choice is yours, but he wanted to give you this." Rachel turned around and stared at a long chain with a small piece of a gem tied to it. Rachel's mouth gaped open slightly. _How did he get that?_ The charm was something that Knuckles almost never left behind. It was one of his prized possessions. Finitevus grinned wider.

"So, are you going to believe me that Knuckles is hurt?" he asked. Rachel felt trapped. She had no choice but to believe him. There was no other way that Finitevus had gotten Knuckles' charm. She took a deep breath, tears forming in her eyes from frustration. She wiped them away angrily and stood up.

"Ok, fine. Tell me where he is."

Knuckles gazed around the thick forest for anything out of place. He had to do another sweep of the island just to be safe. He didn't think that anything dangerous was in the area, but he was bored and he wanted to triple check since Rachel was staying there now. He looked in every corner as he walked quickly. He didn't want to leave Rachel alone for too long. He started thinking harder and harder about the whole thing and realized that she could be in a lot of danger if she was kept alone with Finitevus for too long. He stopped dead and turned around and ran as fast as he could back to his house. He glided along the air to go faster. He looked down below and saw the Master Emerald. He fell to the ground and looked for Rachel. He ran to the house as fast as he could and kicked the door open. He looked around frantically, rushing through every doorway, but he found no sign of Rachel or Finitevus. He started to panic and ran outside to look for Rachel (he could care less about Finitevus). He called her name over and over again, running around most of the area. He stopped around the Master Emerald and put his face in his hands and fell to the ground in despair. _Am I too late?_

Shadow gripped Thunder's feet tightly.

"Well, roadrunner, perhaps if you'd loosen your grip I would explain my actions a little better," Shadow grunted. Thunder laughed, increasing the strength of his grip.

"And why should I let you go? I know that you're just going to run off again. I've kept you here all night, and I'm going to keep you here until Sonic comes to deal with you."

Just as he finished saying it, Sonic came running over to him at lightning speed. He skidded to a stop when he saw Shadow nailed to the ground. He whistled and smiled triumphantly.

"Well, well, faker. It looks like you have been bested! It may not have been me who bested you, but it should still hurt!" He glanced over at Thunder. "So, how did you catch him? By pure luck or by making him fall to his knees?"

"I just had to weaken him up a little bit to get him to calm down. You can deal with him if you want to."

"Sure, toss him here!"

Thunder grinned and tossed Shadow like a rag doll into the air. Shadow hit the ground and slid to Sonic's feet. Sonic told Thunder that he didn't have to stick around.

"Thank crickets!" he said and raced off. Sonic smiled down at Shadow and kneeled down to him.

"So, Shadow, any idea what our old pal Eggman has been up to?"

Shadow glared at him and nodded.

Chapter Nine:

Rachel followed Finitevus carefully and closely. They went towards the edge of the island. Finitevus stopped right at the tip and looked down below, his cape wrapped around him.

"He's down in Downunda," he told Rachel, "We can use my warp ring to get down there." He pulled his gold ring off of his wrist. Rachel stood next to him.

"Ok, let's go down there," she said determinedly. Finitevus grinned and threw the ring into the air. It came back down and opened up into a large portal. Rachel looked into it and saw an abandoned desert town with clay houses in the shape of boxes. Rachel leaned forward to look into it a little better. Finitevus shoved her all the way through. She gasped and tumbled across the ground. Finitevus stepped through the portal and made it disappear into a ring again. He stepped next to Rachel as she got on her hands and knees.

"Well, looks like everything has gone quite well on my part," he said confidently, "I'm afraid you, however, won't be able to get out of this situation without the Guardian here to protect you."

Before Rachel could react, he took out a syringe and stuck it in her arm. She yelled out in pain and knocked out cold. Finitevus grinned and laughed wickedly.

Knuckles ran through the plains of the island, hoping to see any sign of Rachel. He stopped dead at the edge and stared down below. The wind picked up slightly as he saw Rachel and Finitevus in Downunda. His fists and teeth clenched as hard as he could. He jumped off the edge and started gliding downward with the wind. He watched nervously as Finitevus started to drag her off. He landed on the ground on one knee with his fist in the ground. He ran off towards them with a mixture of nervousness and fury.

Sonic pulled Shadow onto his feet carefully. Shadow shook his head to clear his mind. He looked at Sonic glumly.

"He's been coming up with another stupid and useless plot to rule the world again. I found some kind of plot to steal a girl named Rachel and using her chaos energy," Shadow informed him. Sonic scratched his head and thought hard about this.

"Well, Eggman is the one who stuffed tons and tons of chaos energy inside of her in the first place. Maybe this whole new plan has something to do with that," he suggested.

"Probably. But how do you know this girl?"

Sonic blushed. "Well, you see, I'm kind of… her boyfriend."

"Kind of?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. She's with Knux right now, but she still loves me… I think. Anyways, it's too long of a story to get into right now. We need to go and stop Eggman's heinous plan before it gets out of hand!"

"Ok. I'll lead you in the right direction."

"You're not coming to help?"

Shadow shook his head. "I have other things to take care of right now, but if you get in a really bad situation, then I'll help." The two of them took off running at top speed.

"Wait, what happened to the whole I'll-kick-your-butt-just-to-prove-that-I'm-the-ultimate-lifeform?"

Shadow shrugged. "I guess we can put our differences aside for the moment to defeat a common enemy." They ran through a forest and jumped over the tree branches and burst through the leaves. They rushed out the other side and ran across a lake to a large metallic building with a giant telescope sticking out of it and a gold statue of Eggman. Sonic laughed loudly. Shadow stared at him curiously.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing. I just can't help but laugh at how vain and creepy he is."

Shadow turned forward and smiled to himself.


	4. Chapter 10, 11 and 12

Chapter Ten:

Finitevus dragged her away into one of the small buildings. He pushed in a passcode on a keypad and picked Rachel up. He carried her through the clay hallways, large multi-colored wires everywhere. He emerged into a room full of computers and file cabinets. At the other end, there was a giant warp ring that was already opened into a portal. He stepped through it and ended up in the center of the village. He brought Rachel through another building that was covered with metal on the inside and four steel rolling tables were in the center with a large shining light above it. Finitevus placed Rachel down on the second one and pushed a button on the side of it. A glass screen began to come out from the side and cover over Rachel's entire body. He grinned and put his hands through two holes in the glass that were above Rachel's body in the center. He placed a gas mask on her mouth and started a machine that put sleeping gas into her mouth to make her stay unconscious. He walked over to a control panel and started to push a few buttons. Small metal claws with tiny syringes started to lower down into the holes. They stuck inside of Rachel's arm and drew some of her blood. They lifted up and moved over to Dr. Finitevus and gave him the syringes. He walked off towards a back lab and put the blood samples in small tubes and placed them into a computer. He grinned as he waited for the results.

Knuckles snuck around a corner of a building and saw Finitevus carry Rachel into another one of the buildings. His pulse raced as the door closed behind them. Knuckles ran up to the door and waited until he couldn't hear any footsteps. He pulled his fist back and punched the door as hard as he could. It instantly shattered into a hundred pieces. He carefully walked inside as quietly as possible in case he had already been heard. He watched as Finitevus took Rachel into a giant warp ring. Knuckles waited until he disappeared and then ran up to the ring. But the ring disappeared completely. Knuckles skidded to a stop and looked around in confusion. He couldn't find the ring anywhere. He began to think that maybe they had gone to the laboratory that Finitevus had made in Downunda.

"That lying scum," he said through gritted teeth. There was nothing he could do now. It would take him hours to search the entire village to see where they had gone, and by that time Rachel may already be dead. He would have to get Sonic to help him, no matter what. He turned around and ran out the door again.

"I'll come back for you Rachel," he promised, "but for right now you're going to have to survive on your own." He smiled slightly to himself. "And I know you're smart enough to do that."

Sonic and Shadow charged forward into the door of the building with a spin dash. The door busted off its hinges and flew to the other side of a narrow corridor. A loud siren went off and a red light started to flash.

"Did you see that coming, because I sure did," Sonic said grinning.

"Yes, this happens every time someone knocks on Eggman's doorstep," Shadow replied, "It's so predictable."

A large door on the other end of the corridor opened up, and two large robots came out.

"I'll get the left, you get the right?" Sonic asked.

"Sounds fine to me."

They ran along the walls and blasted through the robots, crossing in front of each other quickly.

"Excuse me, pardon me, we have to see the man in charge," Sonic said as they blasted through more robots through the doorway. They ran all the way through the hallways of the huge building at the speed of sound. They ignored most of the robots and proceeded to the main control room. They blasted through a large door and emerged in a large open room that had a glass dome around it. They skidded to a stop. Sonic grinned.

"So, we find the fat man with a mustache yet again."

Chapter Eleven:

Rachel felt a weird sensation going through her body. She felt herself gaining consciousness again, but she had no idea how. Her eyes slowly forced themselves open. She looked through the glass she was kept in. She felt the gas mask weighing on her mouth and making her slip back into a daze. She willed her arms to move, even though they felt extremely weak. Her hands grasped the edges and pulled it off. She took a huge breath as she became able to move around more freely. She felt a small twinge of pain in her arm as she moved it around. She looked at it and noticed a small point in it where a syringe had been. Her eyes widened in worry.

_He's already getting a blood sample! _She thought miserably. She placed her hands on the glass and pushed as hard as she could. No use. There wasn't enough room for her to move her legs up. _This looks like a job for my chaos powers! _She thought. She laid perfectly still as she focused hard on breaking the glass in front of her. Slowly, a huge crack began to form right in front of her. It grew bigger and bigger as the glass tube expanded. There were cracks all over, and with a little extra effort, it finally shattered completely. Rachel made a shield around herself to prevent the glass from hitting her. As the glass pieces fell to the floor, she sprung up and bolted towards the door. She ran through each room without a doubt in her mind as to where she was going. All she was thinking about was getting as far away from there as possible.

Knuckles ran faster and faster as he got closer to Sonic's house. The wind started to pick up slightly as more clouds began to form. _This can only mean trouble. _He thought miserably. He heard a distant noise, and assumed that it meant a storm was coming. But as it got louder, he wondered what was really going on. He groaned as he remembered what it meant. _Oh sweet Aurora. _A quick flash of a bird came into view. Knuckles tried to stop, but Thunder smacked right into him. They stumbled across the ground, gasping and struggling to regain their balance. Knuckles dug his spikes into the ground and skidded to a stop. Thunder grabbed the ground with his talons. Thunder looked around and noticed the echidna rising to his feet. He groaned.

"Great…. Now you're waiting for me to show up! How did you know that I was going to be here anyways?" He squinted at him. "Are you a stalker now?"

"No, Thunder," Knuckles replied crossly, "but I do want to know where….."

"How else could you have known that I was going to be here? I mean, I always did get this creepy feeling that you were a creeper, but I didn't know that you would actually STALK me!"

"Thunder, I'm not stalker or a creeper! I had no idea you were going to be here! I was just looking for…"

"Are you sure about that? With the way you interact with Rachel I wouldn't be surprised if you were a creeper who watches people in their sleep and…"

"THUNDER, SHUT UP BEFORE I PUNCH YOUR FACE ALL THE WAY TO THE OTHERSIDE OF NEW MEGAPOLIS!" Thunder stared at him. He straightened up and pouted. "You don't have to be so mean about it…"

Knuckles breathed deeply and calmed himself before speaking again. "I want to know where Sonic is." Thunder looked around nervously. He gulped.

"Ummm… Sonic isn't here at the moment…. Please leave a message at the beep… _Beep…" _Knuckles stared at him with a 'Did you really just do that?' type of expression. Thunder yelled, "Well, what do you expect me to do, tell you that he left to go to the magical land of dancing ponies?" Knuckles did a face palm.

"Never mind that! Do you know where he is or not?"

"I'm not his keeper!" Knuckles sighed.

"Well, we need to look for him! I need his help right now!"

"I have no clue where he is, so I guess I could help you, 'cause it'll take forever to…"

"NO!"

"Oh, come on! I'm so bored! Just let me help for a little…"

"I would rather ask the rocks to help me save the world than to allow you to help me with this." Thunder looked away angrily.

"Fine! I'll let you help me look for him." And with that, Thunder sped off down the path. Knuckles stared after him in shock.

"HEY!" he shouted. Thunder turned around and ran back. He laughed.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot how slow people are." Knuckles stared at him like 'I will pound you into oblivion if you don't shut up and start running!' Thunder smiled and they ran off towards Eggman's base. _This makes sense. Sonic is Eggman's greatest enemy. _Knuckles ran as fast as he could full of determination to save Rachel as fast as he could.

"You!" Eggman shouted. He pushed several buttons, and he disappeared behind a steel wall. Several large robots appeared and rushed up to Sonic and Shadow. They both burst through them instantly and smashed up many more as they appeared. They tried several times to break through the steel, but it was no use. They ripped through robot after robot, Sonic grinning. He looked up as the glass dome shattered and Knuckles and Thunder came down onto the floor. The two of them helped Sonic and Shadow. Knuckles ran over to Sonic. Sonic grinned wider.

"Hey Knux, you and Thunder here to help beat Baldy McNosehair?" Knuckles tried to stop himself from laughing. He shook his head and went back-to-back with Sonic as they kept destroying the machines.

"No. I wanted to see you because… Rachel's in trouble." Sonic's eyes widened. "Rachel?" His face became serious as he faced Knuckles. "Where is she? Do you know if she's hurt? Was she taken?"

"Yes, I know where she is, but I'm going to need your help to get her back. As for is she's ok…" he looked away, "I have no clue. But she was taken." Sonic didn't ask any more questions he ran to Thunder and told him to take care of Eggman himself. Thunder groaned.

"Fine….." Sonic and Knuckles ran out of the glass dome and straight towards Downunda without any second thoughts.

Chapter Twelve:

The sun started to set, and Finitevus had no doubt that Rachel was still in Downunda. He slowly walked around the village, looking at every corner. He could feel that she was somewhere nearby. He went out to the edge and saw Rachel sitting there, staring at the sunset. Finitevus grinned.

"That wasn't too difficult. Now, come my dear, there is still more work for me to do." He put out his hand, but Rachel didn't move. She simply said in a mysterious tone, "You remind me of Knuckles. But just a little bit. You're the opposite of him. His negative form, I guess you could say. It's…" She turned around and stared into his eyes with a mysterious, emotionless look, "…..odd." Finitevus grinned wider.

"Ah, you are a smart girl. You can sense chaos energy in other people and objects, and you can sense the relationship between them. Such a smart and pretty girl shouldn't be stuck with a Guardian who is spoiled with power and wanders around with no clue as to what he is doing. But with my work, this whole world could be changed." Rachel smiled slightly and giggled. Her mysterious eyes began to glow.

"I don't think you know exactly what you're dealing with. I can do almost anything I want." She paused, her mysterious stare boring into his eyes, "Including killing you." Finitevus felt his body tighten. His chaos energy started to emit from him as he tried to stop her. But it was no use. The black energy simply back-fired on him. He fell to the ground in pain, his body getting even tighter. He coughed slightly from the pressure on his body. Rachel tilted her head slightly. She could feel his chaos powers trying to counteract hers. She felt herself get exhausted. She started to black out as the emotion came back onto her face. Her eyes were less distant and she felt the two forces of chaos energy explode. Rachel fell unconscious in a heap. Finitevus cringed with pain and slowly rose to his feet. He smiled sardonically and laughed sourly. He walked over to Rachel's body.

"I knew my chaos power would be able to ward off yours. All because you didn't learn how to control it fully. Tisk, tisk." He shook his head. "Well, you should feel lucky to be the starting flame of my new plan."

Sonic and Knuckles ran to the edge of the village. They stopped behind a rock and looked at Rachel. Her eyes were distant and her face emotionless. Sonic looked back and saw the sunset. His chest filled with pain. "Oh no…." he muttered. Knuckles looked over at him curiously. His eyes widened as he saw Sonic transform into a werehog. _Oh. Forgot about that. _Sonic slowly got up again. He hurt all over, like usual when he transforms. Knuckles stared ahead again when he heard Finitevus talking. He tightened up and braced himself. Sonic looked at him in confusion.

"HE'S the one who took her? Seriously? I thought you had him kicked off the island for good after that whole Enerjak incident." Knuckles looked away spitefully.

"He faked needing a place to stay, and I refused him, but Rachel felt sorry for him, so she made me help him." Sonic glared at him.

"So, what happened, did you leave her alone with him and then he snatched her?" Knuckles looked at the ground and nodded. Sonic felt his blood boil.

"_You left her alone with him!? _How could you do something like that!? You of all people know how obsessed he is with chaos energy, and Rachel is the perfect experiment for that!"

"I'm sorry, I was trying to check the island for anything dangerous." Sonic gave him a 'seriously?' type of look. Knuckles stared ahead.

"I know, I know! He was the biggest threat to her at the time, so there was no reason to leave her alone." Sonic stared at Rachel and saw her slowly starting to wobble. Knuckles looked at Finitevus and realized that he was using his chaos energy to counteract Rachel's. When Rachel fell unconscious, both of them leaped up and ran to get her. But Knuckles aimed for Finitevus when he walked up to Rachel. Knuckles punched him in the face and sent him flying across the ground. Sonic bent over Rachel and held her close.

"Rachel….?" He whispered. Rachel slowly opened her eyes and looked into his face. A tear rolled down her cheek. "Sonic…." She started to weep as she hugged him tightly. "I-I'm so, SO sorry Sonic… I-I didn't meant to hurt you, I just need to clear my head and… and…" she choked as she tried to tell him something else, but Sonic told her to calm down, that everything was fine.

"I understand Rachel… Please don't cry…" She tried to choke back her tears, but there was no way she could. Sonic smiled as he held his true love close once again.

Knuckles chased Finitevus around the village until they came to a dead end. Finitevus grinned and pulled out a warp ring. "I'm afraid this is goodbye Guardian. Don't worry, I'll be back to get the girl soon enough." The warp ring opened up into a portal and Finitevus bowed as he stepped through it.

"Oh no you don't!" Knuckles ran through the portal and ran right into the Master Emerald. Its power engulfed him as he cried out in pain. There was a different kind of energy inside of it. Finitevus grinned triumphantly as Knuckles began to change forms.

"Arise, my god, and unleash your power upon the world!" Knuckles slowly stopped changing as he floated to the ground. Finitevus laughed.

"Come, Enerjak, and light this world on fire to bring about a new era!"


	5. Chapter 13, 14 and 15

Chapter Thirteen:

Sonic picked Rachel up and began to carry her away.

"You'll be a lot safer back at our house, and as far away from that creep as possible."

"Our house….?" Rachel remembered the last time she had been there. It was just before they had left on that crazy journey. Rachel smiled knowing that Sonic was still talking to her and that he still loved her. Sonic stopped and turned around as he heard a huge crash on Angel Island. Rachel groaned in agony. Sonic turned towards her.

"Rachel? Is something wrong?"

"I feel…. An intense amount of chaos energy….." She groaned again and Sonic placed her on the ground, holding her close.

"Rachel!? What's wrong!?" Rachel writhed with pain as she gasped, "He's back…. We have to get out of here before he….. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" She screamed in pain and squeezed Sonic as hard as she could.

"Rachel! Rachel! RACHEL! What do you mean? Who's back?" Rachel screamed a few more times and clutched onto Sonic. He looked out of the corner of his eye and saw something coming straight towards them. He immediately knew who it was.

"Enerjak….." he breathed. Before he could go anywhere else, Enerjak blasted him away with his chaos energy. Sonic flew backwards away from Rachel. She struggled to get up.

"Sonic!" She tried to get up and run towards him, but Enerjak simply held her arm. She yelled out in pain again. She felt her body become exhausted and she fell into a deep sleep, barely hearing the voice saying, "Be still, my love, your pain shall end soon."

Sonic grunted as he slowly woke up. Pain surged through his body madly, and he could barely move. He looked over and saw that Rachel was not there. He quickly got up and searched for any sign of her. But he knew it was no use. Enerjak had definitely taken her away. But where… he had no idea. He slowly ran through the whole thing in his mind. Enerjak was back… Finitevus and Knuckles had disappeared….. Rachel was taken by Enerjak…. Sonic realized that if Enerjak was truly back at full force, then he would need a lot of help if he was going to defeat him and get Rachel back. He ran off towards Eggman's base, slowly thinking of how to stop the chaos god.

Rachel opened her eyes slowly, her vision a little foggy. She felt someone holding her hand.

"Rachel?" She turned and looked into Enerjak's eyes. He smiled down at her, glad that she was awake. "Knuckles….." she muttered. She sat up quickly, but groaned in pain and fell into his arms. He smiled and held her head against his chest.

"Everything is ok now, my love," he whispered.

"B-but Enerjak….. He-he's back….He's going to hurt so many people….. Oh Knuckles, what are we going to do…..? I'm glad you escaped from him, but still… Oh Knuckles…." She cried silently as she remembered everything that had happened. Sonic….. She sat up and got out of Enerjak's arms.

"Sonic… He's in danger! Enerjak got him! Oh God, Knux please go help him!" she pleaded. Enerjak smiled at her sweetly. He kissed her lips and held her close to him. She felt the millions of worries inside her head burst into thin air. She felt herself melt into him without a care in the world. He stopped for a moment just to say, "Enerjak won't hurt Sonic or you, darling. I promise."

"Knuckles….." They kissed again, holding each other close. Rachel had no idea what was really going on. Enerjak kissed her lightly and placed her all the way back on the bed. He placed his hand on her head and willed her back to sleep.

"I'll be here when you wake up, my love," he assured her. Rachel smiled at him and fell asleep again. Enerjak kissed her one last time and went out to the warm night. He transformed into his true self and flew through the dark sky.

"Our work shall begin immediately. You should start at New Megapolis and get rid of any Robotnik units or humans. Everything needs to be taken care of before we can start really getting rid of the mindless boggle that roams this planet."

"Of course. I shall head there immediately."

Finitevus thought for a moment, and then asked, "Where have you put the girl?"

"She is in a house not far from here." Enerjak paused before adding, "But you'd better not touch her. Remember our deal?" Finitevus nodded.

"I remember. No harm shall come to her. I will not experiment on her either."

"Good. Then I shall leave." Enerjak put on his helmet and teleported off. Finitevus grinned as he stood at the edge of Angel Island. He wrapped his cape around himself.

"Soon, Mobius shall be reborn through a large chaos fire that will be utterly unstoppable."

Chapter Fourteen:

Enerjak swept through the city of New Megapolis quickly. He destroyed any cybernetic technology as well as any Eggman units nearby. No humans lived there, so that was fine. He left all of the citizens alive. After his work there was done, he decided to go and see Rachel again. He teleported back inside the house, which was exactly the way he left it. Rachel was still in a deep sleep. Enerjak transformed himself to look like Knuckles again. He gently placed his hand on her forehead and whispered, "Rachel?"

Rachel slowly opened her eyes. She smiled at Enerjak. He smiled back.

"Knuckles…." He softly kissed her lips. She felt as if her body was weightless, that she would just float away. She sat up and rested her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her. She closed her eyes. Enerjak was careful not to let her gain her memory back. The only thing he wanted her to remember was the fact that she loved him. He placed his hand on her face.

"You will be safe from now on, my love," he said, "Once this world is reborn, nothing will be able to hurt you." Rachel touched his hand.

"But why do I have to keep falling asleep? Can't I stay awake and be with you?" Enerjak smiled.

"The world right now is ugly. Once it is beautiful again, then I will let you stay awake for longer. Until then, sleeping is the only way to save you from the pain and agony of this world." Rachel nodded sadly. He hugged her close and let her bury her head in his chest.

"You will be free soon, my darling. But not until I am sure that you will be safe." Rachel smiled and whispered, "I love you. I hope nothing ever tears us apart." Enerjak kissed her once more and placed her back down on the bed.

"I know it is boring, but it's what's best."

"I understand." He placed his hand back on her forehead and Rachel closed her eyes and fell back to sleep. Enerjak turned back into himself again and teleported to Angel Island. Finitevus was standing in front of the Master Emerald. Enerjak approached him. Finitevus turned around. His eyes widened in surprise.

"Done already?" He laughed and grinned. "Well, this should go faster than expected."

"I am going to go as quickly as I can," Enerjak replied, "I'll also make sure that no one tries to interfere."

"Good. Then be on your way." With that, Enerjak teleported away.

The sun rose as Sonic turned back into himself and ran a lot faster. He reached Eggman's base in a matter of seconds. As he skidded to a stop, he noticed that the whole base had been incinerated. Sonic whistled lowly. _Shadow and Thunder really put a toll on this place. _Just as he thought that he saw Thunder run up to him in a hurry. He tripped on his own feet and tumbled. He cursed and stood up again.

"Stupid feet," he muttered. He turned back to Sonic and grinned.

"Surprised, aren't you?" Sonic nodded and smiled.

"I'm impressed. What did you do to mess it up so bad?"

Thunder stood taller with pride. "I just unleashed a little bit of Fiery's power all over the place."

"Nice! Now, where did Shadow go?"

Thunder shrugged. "Who knows. Disappeared right after this place got barbecued."

Sonic nodded. "Ok, well, I'm going to need your help with something else."

"Whatcha need?"

Sonic grew serious. "It's Enerjak. He's back, and he's got Rachel. I have no idea what happened to Knux and Finitevus but-…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up the salt truck, you're telling me that Enerjak is back, and Finitevus was running around loose somewhere, and Knuckles was also there, and Rachel was taken by this egotistic chaos god who wants to rid the world of technology and people?"

Sonic thought for a minute. "Yep, that pretty much sums it up."

"That still doesn't explain how Finitevus fits into the story." His eyes widened and he leaned forward. "Wait- Is he responsible for Enerjak coming back _again?"_ Sonic shrugged.

"I don't know, but he probably is." He shivered as he added, "And I think Knux might have been the one turned into Enerjak."

Rachel dreamt for what felt to her like forever. She saw many things that she couldn't put a name to. A strange tan bird….. A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes… A man and a woman with brown hair and blue eyes…. A giant phoenix….. Seven glowing gems… an albino echidna… A witch in a gold dress… And a blue hedgehog. She thought about these things for a long time, but could put a name to none of them. The hedgehog was the one person that was most vivid, but she could not recognize his face at all. _Who is that? Why am I seeing such weird things? Surely none of it is real… _She thought and thought for a long time, feeling as though they all were real, but just not known to her.

Chapter Fifteen:

Enerjak "liberated" city after city in a giant blaze. He went quickly, never hesitating for a moment. Thousands of people lost their homes in his wake, but no one dared to challenge him. Almost half of the world had already been decimated, and time was running out before Finitevus' plan would be complete. While Enerjak kept himself busy, Finitevus decided to finish another part of his plan. He walked over to the small house where Rachel was being kept. He used his chaos power to break the force field. He walked through the door to find Rachel lying down on the bed, exactly where Enerjak had left her. Finitevus grinned to himself.

"I said that I would not harm her or experiment on her, but nowhere in our agreement did it say that I couldn't awaken her." He walked over to her and placed his hand on her forehead. _Just as I thought. Enerjak has put her into a sleep that cannot be disturbed without the power of chaos. _His hand emitted a black glow as he waited patiently for Rachel to wake up. Her eyes slowly opened. Her eyelids fluttered as her green eyes looked at Finitevus.

"…..Who are…..?" She slowly remembered the strange dream she had. She sat up and scrambled back with fright. "Wh-who are you? Wh-where's Knuckles?" Finitevus smiled. _Perfect. Her memory has almost been completely wiped. _He put his hands in the air.

"I don't want to hurt you. I'm only here to check on you for Knuckles," he lied. Rachel shook slightly, her body tense. "Where is he?" Finitevus slowly lowered his hands and walked closer to her.

"He is working on making this world fresh and new. He is incredibly determined to fix Mobius just for you." Rachel slowly stopped shaking, but her body stayed tense. "Are you a friend of his?"

"Of course I am! I am his greatest ally, and the one who is helping him with his quest." Rachel slowly relaxed and moved closer to him. "Really? What's your name?" Finitevus slowly took her hand.

"Dr. Finitevus. It's a pleasure to meet you my dear. And what would your name be?"

"Rachel." She replied. She smiled at him sweetly. Finitevus smiled back.

"Such a pretty name for such a pretty face." He closed his eyes and raised her hand to his lips. Rachel blushed slightly.

Still holding her hand, he said, "Tell me, why does Knuckles insist on keeping you trapped in here?" Rachel looked down sadly.

"I don't know. All he told me was that I had to stay here because the world is still ugly. But once the world is beautiful again, then he'll let me go outside." Finitevus shook his head.

"Such a shame… A beautiful young girl like you shouldn't be forced to stay in here and not be able to see the world. While I do agree that this world needs cleansing, I don't agree with the fact that he is keeping you trapped in here like a prisoner. Come, let me show you the outside world now so that you can appreciate its beauty later." Rachel stared at him in disbelief.

"You're…. you're going to take me outside? Really?" She jumped right in front of him and smiled, her eyes full of excitement. Finitevus smiled.

"Of course my dear! It wouldn't make much sense to have you see a new world that was rebuilt from a world you never even got a chance to see!" He caressed her cheek lightly with his finger. Rachel blushed again, leaning back slightly in discomfort. _If Knuckles sees him acting like this towards me, he'll have us both hung by the neck!_

Finitevus slowly made his way to the front door. He turned around and signaled for Rachel to follow him. Rachel slowly stood up, wobbling slightly. _I've been asleep for so long…. I can't even stand properly! _ She slowly joined Finitevus in the doorway. He bowed and signaled for her to go first. She took a deep breath holding in all of her air. She could feel thousands of butterflies fluttering around her stomach in a frenzy. As her bare feet touched the soft grass, her eyes widened in amazement at the sight before her. The bright sunlight warmed her body as she took another step. She gazed around the fields, gaping at the beautiful flowers that were scattered about. She looked up in awe as the many clouds slowly traveled by. She felt herself get lost in the wonder of it all….. This was a world she had never even imagined seeing!

_Knuckles made it sound like this place was absolute garbage….._ she thought in bewilderment. She continued to take in every gorgeous sight before her. Finitevus smiled.

"Do you think this world is…..magnificent?" Rachel nodded, never taking her eyes off of the sky. Finitevus stood beside her.

"This part may be flawless, but the places where civilians are is atrocious. The people of this planet are so disorganized…. They need to be rebuilt by a powerful being who can lead them in the right direction." Rachel looked at him.

"Is that where Knuckles comes in? Is he the powerful being that will save everyone?" Finitevus nodded.

"Yes. He shall burn this world, and only those who are worthy of helping us shall stay alive." He turned towards her. "And you are definitely one of those people." Rachel tilted her head slightly.

"I'm going to help you…..?" Before she could finish her sentence, Finitevus pulled her feet out from under her and put her down on her back and through a warp ring. Rachel gasped in shock, and before she could say anything else, he pulled her into a kiss.

Enerjak floated down outside of the house. He took a deep breath, sweat coming down his forehead.

"So much work…. But it's all worth it…." He said as he walked up to the front door. But he felt something strange….. The force field was not there….. He quickly bolted inside and saw that Rachel's bed was empty. He searched the house but found no sign of her. In anger and worry, he ran back out and flew around the island, desperate to find her as quickly as possible.


	6. Chapter 16, 17 and 18

Chapter Sixteen:

Sonic and Thunder ran alongside each other towards the floating island. Once they got towards the crater below it, Thunder flew, grabbed Sonic's shoulders, and flew all the way up to the edge of the island. As soon as they touched the ground, they ran as fast as they could towards the Emerald shrine. As they continued to approach, they noticed Enerjak flying in the air above them. Sonic quickly pushed Thunder behind a rock.

"Why are we hiding? Let's go take that jerk down right now!" Thunder protested.

"Do you have any idea how stupid that would be? Look, I know I like to take risks a lot, but the last time I faced Enerjak, it wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do…. Right now is not the best time to pick a fight with him. I think the best thing we can do is go and look for Rachel or Dr. Finitevus," he replied. Thunder groaned, but nodded. As soon as Enerjak passed, they ran as fast as they could away from the shrine and instead headed towards Knuckles' house. Sonic ran through the front door first. He quickly checked every room and yelled Rachel and Knuckles' name over and over again. When he saw no sign of them or Finitevus, he ran outside then shook his head and frowned at Thunder. Thunder sighed.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to check the rest of the island. We have to find at least one of them is we're going to find the other two."

"You're right. Come on, there's no time to waste!" Sonic agreed. And with that, they ran off towards a house off into the distance.

Rachel quickly pushed Finitevus off of her. She scrambled away from him and cowered in fear.

"What did you….? Why did you just….?" She whimpered. Finitevus grinned at her evilly.

"Isn't it obvious, my dear? You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. You have many assets about you. You are not only positively gorgeous, but you are also incredibly smart. You may not remember, but you have incredible chaos abilities, much like that of Knuckles'. Perhaps even greater."

Rachel stared at him curiously. "I…. may not remember? What do you mean?" Finitevus stepped closer to her, but she moved farther back.

"Knuckles has deprived most of your memory from you, which is of very little use to me. While he may love you dearly just as I do, he is far too busy rebuilding this world to pay any attention to you. But I however can pay attention to you all day long."

Rachel backed up a little further. "Why do you both love me so much? There has to be a reason the two of you love me so much!"

"The chaos energy inside of you attracts us to you….. It makes us both want to be closer to you…." He slowly walked forward. Rachel began shaking with fear. She suddenly realized how much danger she was in…. Finitevus might take her away, and she may never see Knuckles ever again…..

Just as Finitevus was about to grab her, a clear voice yelled out, "YOU KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS AWAY FROM HER!" Finitevus looked up as Enerjak sent a chaos arrow right into the evil scientist. He went flying back and stumbled across the grass. Enerjak immediately teleported him away. He rushed towards Rachel and hugged her tight.

"Rachel! He didn't hurt you, did he?" he asked frantically. Tears of relief and joy came running out of her eyes. She placed her head on his chest and hugged back.

"Knuckles…" she whimpered. He kissed her forehead lightly and stroked her head.

"Everything is all right now, my love. No one and nothing shall hurt you anymore."

"Think again, Enerjerk!" This time, Enerjak was the one who was about to be surprised. Sonic spin-dashed him right in the stomach. He went tumbling into the ground. Since he already had his helmet off, Sonic immediately saw that Knuckles was yet again the demi-god Enerjak. Sonic felt his demeanor change.

"Knux… How many times do we have to go through this? That Dr. Finitevus creep has turned you into Enerjak yet again. I'll definitely save you Knux, and I promise you that no one will have to die this time."

Enerjak stood up, the look in his eyes less sinister. To Sonic, it looked like the Knuckles he had known for years, not some spell-bound chaos god. "Sonic…" Enerjak came back as quickly as he had gone. "Stop trying to use your big mouth as usual! It will lead you to nothing but trouble!"

Rachel stared into the eyes of the blue hedgehog. He was the one she had seen… Slowly, she remembered that vivid image of him in her dream. He looked into her eyes, but kept his body facing Enerjak. Sonic grinned at her and said, "Hey kiddo." She had seen him from somewhere other than her dream, she _knew _it! But _where _had she seen him? She couldn't stop staring at him. Furious, Enerjak rushed forward and slammed into Sonic with full power. He sent him flying across the field and into the dust. He grabbed him and held is fist under his chin.

"I won't have you interfering with my plans again!" As he pulled his fist back, he was hit yet again, but this time by Shadow. He threw a chaos spear at him right in the hand. Enerjak yelled out him pain, quickly grabbing his wounded hand and instantly dropping Sonic. Sonic grinned and gave Shadow a thumbs-up.

"Thanks, faker. I guess you can get your revenge from last time now, right?" Shadow gave him a slight nod, then charged forward and blew Enerjak off his feet. Sonic ran up to Rachel and kneeled by her side.

"You ok, Rachel?" He asked tenderly. She backed up slightly.

"How do you know me?" Sonic's eyes widened in surprise.

"What? Don't you remember who I am? It's me, Sonic! You have to remember me!" Rachel shook her head.

"No… I mean, I've seen you in a dream before, but I don't ever remember seeing you in real life." Sonic looked down sadly.

"Great. Enerjak or that creep Finitevus took your memory away from you." He took her hand in his and looked into her eyes. "Rachel… You may not remember me, or everything that we've been through together, but that doesn't change the fact that I have and always will love you for the rest of eternity." He smiled. "And Finitevus and Enerjak will never lay their hands on you as long as I'm here." Rachel continued to stare at him. Everything they had been through together… What had they been through together? As she contemplated on what he had said, a warp ring opened up behind her. Sonic noticed it and put Rachel behind him, keeping a protective arm in front of her. Finitevus stepped out of the ring. His teeth clenched, he glared at Sonic.

"You again! Didn't I teach you last time not to mess with my plans!?" Sonic grinned.

"Sorry, I'm not a fast learner." Finitevus growled then lunged at Sonic. Sonic stayed where he was, knowing that if he moved, Finitevus would be able to grab Rachel and get away. Finitevus opened up a warp ring and grabbed Sonic. Before he could throw the hedgehog inside, Sonic grabbed a warp ring off of his arm. As he went through, he winked at Rachel and mouthed the words, _I'll be back soon. _The warp ring closed again and Finitevus laughed triumphantly.

"Now that that piece of vermin is gone, and Enerjak is busy," he paused and looked at Rachel, "you will be all mine." Rachel screamed as he grabbed her arms and took out another warp ring. Before he could open it, Enerjak and Shadow came colliding into him. He rolled across the ground desperately trying to break away from their intense battle. Enerjak stopped, gasping for air. His knees shook violently as he tried to stand up. When he realized he had no strength left, he fell on his knees, holding his head. Sweat was beading down his forehead as he muttered, "Stop it… You cannot stop me… Stop it…" Knuckles was furiously trying to take control of himself again. He was trying to get rid of Enerjak any way he could.

Shadow noticed this and immediately charged back at Enerjak. Enerjak flew back, then teleported away, then reappeared behind Shadow. He shouted, "Lightning arrow!" A green chaos arrow shot its way right into Shadow's stomach. Finitevus quickly got up and started to run towards Rachel, but Enerjak saw him and tackled him to the ground. Shadow quickly got back to his feet, holding his arm, but determined to continue fighting. He rushed forward and joined the brawl.

Rachel looked at all of them and screamed as chaos blasts that were black, red, and green came colliding into each other, creating a huge explosion. A huge flash started to swallow up the area around them. Enerjak felt like his head was splitting in two. He yelled out in agony, quickly fading away, back into the heart of Mobius…

Rachel felt the same amount of pain, but instead her head felt like it was being filled with jelly. She screamed as her head went into a spin. Everything went black for a split second. The darkness was quickly filled by vivid images… The first time she saw Sonic lying on the ground… Their first kiss… The day she stopped aging… Knuckles' first kiss with her… The time they were in jail… The day she died the first time… Their crazy journey to find the Chaos Emeralds… The day when Sonic died in Athens… The day she was killed by Sonic… Sonic's proposal… The day she saw Finitevus for the first time… The day Enerjak came back… All of her memories came back in a giant pile. She had no idea why, but she was lying on the ground, her mind in a blur.

A single tear rolled down her cheek as she whispered, "Sonic… Knuckles… I love you."

Chapter Seventeen:

The flash had gone, but a giant crater had taken its place. Finitevus groaned as he rose to his feet, he legs shaking. He leaned against the side of a broken tree for support. His vision slowly began to clear up as he looked around. Rachel was lying on the ground face up, silently crying to herself. Knuckles' body- which was back to normal- was limp as it lay face down. Shadow was nowhere in sight. Finitevus yelled out in fury and picked up Knuckles' body by one of his dreadlocks. Still, Knuckles did not move, his eyes closed.

"YOU! YOU AND YOUR IGNORANCE! YOU ARE BLIND, NAÏVE! YOU DON'T DESERVE TO HAVE COMMAND OF CHAOS ENERGY!" He kicked Knuckles across the ground. He walked up to him and kicked him in the stomach several times. He stopped and caught his breath. Knuckles still hadn't moved at all. Finitevus raised his foot.

"You don't deserve to live." Just as he was about to put his foot on Knuckles' face, a warp ring opened up behind him. Sonic saw what was happening then spin-dashed into Finitevus' back. Finitevus groaned as he hit the ground.

"Sorry Doc, can't let you kill my buddy!" Sonic rushed towards Knuckles' unconscious form. He held his head up slightly.

"Knux, you ok?" Knuckles' eyelids started to twitch ever so slightly. He coughed several times. He slowly opened his eyes halfway and stared up at Sonic with his amethyst eyes. He barely managed a small smile.

"Being Enerjak sucks…" he muttered. Sonic laughed.

"I bet it does." He put Knuckles' arm over his shoulders. Knuckles slowly rose to his feet, but held his side and grimaced. Sonic looked at him with concern. Knuckles shook his head.

"Ow… Something definitely happened to me after I got knocked out."

"Will you be all right?" Sonic asked. Knuckles nodded. The two of them slowly made their way towards Knuckles' house. Then, for the first time, Sonic noticed that Rachel was gone. He stopped to look around frantically. Knuckles gave him a curious glance.

"What's wrong?"

"Rachel's gone!" Sonic cried.

"What!?" Knuckles looked around as well. Then, he heard a muffled scream come from nearby. They both turned to see Finitevus struggling to drag a kicking and screaming Rachel into his warp ring.

"HEY!" Knuckles yelled. He ignored all of the pain pulsing through his body as he went off at a dead sprint towards Finitevus. Finitevus tried one last desperate attempt to get Rachel through the ring, but Rachel's eyes started to glow as she used her chaos powers to stop him from moving. Knuckles launched a punch right into his face. He fell back onto the ground, the warp ring closing. Knuckles picked him up and punched him again. Finitevus' glasses fell off of the edge of his nose and shattered on the ground. He retaliated with a kick to Knuckles' already injured side. Knuckles groaned in pain, but backfired with another punch, this time to Finitevus' stomach. He stumbled backwards, his fury slowly building. Black chaos energy emitted from his hands as he started to pull his fist back. Knuckles' fists started to glow with his green chaos energy as he started to pull his fist back as well. Their two fists collided in a giant explosion, the area around them shaking furiously. Sonic rushed up to Rachel and held her close to prevent her from getting hurt. The two echidnas continued to collide, sending blasts, arrows, and fists of chaos energy at each other. Sonic picked up the warp ring that had been left on the ground.

"Come on, we should get out of here before something really bad happens." He looked over at Rachel. She was staring at the battle unfolding with an intense gleam in her eyes. Sonic shook her shoulder slightly.

"Rachel? You ok?"

"I got my memory back, you know," she said in a mysterious tone. Sonic looked at her with surprise.

"Really? That's great!" Rachel continued to stare at the fight.

"I love you Sonic," she whispered, "I just wanted you to know that before it's decided."

"Rachel…" Sonic continued to stare at her, but his expression switched to confusion.

"I love you too Rachel, but what's going to be decided?" Rachel closed her mysterious green eyes and leaned forward and gave him a small, sweet kiss. Sonic closed his eyes and leaned forward into the kiss, never wanting to leave her. But she pulled away from him and kissed his cheek.

"Perhaps you'll be the one that will be chosen." Her eyes stayed mysterious and emotionless as she turned away from him and faced the chaos battle. She started to walk towards the chaos blasts. Sonic started to run up to her. He put his hand out to stop her/

"Rachel-…" He was stopped dead in his tracks. He felt Rachel's chaos energy stop him before he could touch her. He tried to say something, but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth. Rachel started to come into the middle of the two echidnas. Finitevus grinned wickedly at Knuckles as Knuckles snarled and glared at him. They started to launch another chaos punch at each other when a white glow came between them. As they came closer together, the glow grew brighter, and the core of the light became more clear. Rachel was creating the light, her hand reached out. She stopped the both of them before they could reach her. She slowly began to speak in a mysterious tone.

"Knuckles… Finitevus… One of you two may be chosen. Knuckles," she said turning towards him, "I love you. I want you to know that before one of you three is chosen." She closed her eyes and slowly started to fall backward. As she fell, she uttered the words, "Find… The… Connection…" She lay perfectly on her back, but floated slightly off the ground. Her arms slowly started to turn to crystal. Knuckles struggled to try and fight off the energy to get to her, but it was no use. The crystal spread to the rest of her body and completely encased her. The light grew brighter and brighter until the whole island was engulfed.

Chapter Eighteen:

Knuckles groaned as he slowly sat up. He looked around and saw Finitevus and Sonic lying unconscious nearby. He felt the cold stone under his hands that made up the temple they were inside. As he stood up to look around some more, he saw an altar at the top of a staircase. At the top, a large crystal was floating above it. Knuckles walked closer to it to get a better look. He held his breath as he looked into the closed eyes of Rachel's crystal form. Her hands were crossed, one on top of the other. Her legs were bent slightly and her hair was spread out.

"RACHEL!" Knuckles sprinted up to the altar and pressed his hand on top of hers. He pulled his fist back to try and punch it, but he stopped himself, realizing that if he broke the crystal, Rachel would break as well. He punched the stone floor in frustration, leaving a giant crack.

"Rachel… I'm so sorry…" he whispered, "If I wouldn't have let my guard and let Finitevus trick me into becoming Enerjak again, none of this would've happened… You wouldn't be in this mess… We would've been able to be happy together on Angel Island… It's all my fault…" Several tears started to run down his cheeks.

"I failed you… Just like… Just like…" He couldn't say. It was too painful for him to say it. He felt a hand grab his shoulder gently.

"You haven't failed her, Knux," Sonic said trying to be assuring, "She isn't dead yet." Knuckles tried to quickly wipe his eyes. He hated crying in front of people.

"But, she's turned into crystal," he sniffled, "there's no way to get her out." Sonic knelt by his side and smiled at him.

"Didn't you hear what she said? One of us is going to be chosen."

"Yes, but… What does that even mean?"

Sonic pointed at the stone pillars that were standing along the hallway and said, "On each of these pillars it says what's going to happen. It tells us what we have to do, and how it will be decided, and even more importantly, what is going to be decided." Knuckles rose to his feet and walked back down the stone staircase curiously examining each of the stone pillars. He carefully read each and every one aloud:

"'What is there to be decided? The one that shall be the keeper of the purest of all chaos energy, the one heart that binds this world into one piece with limitless amounts of power…' What does that mean?"

"Keep reading. Maybe the next ones will explain a little bit better," Sonic suggested. Knuckles shrugged and read the next one.

"'How shall it be decided? The one that can solve the riddle of how the chaos is connected and can control those connections may wield the power of the Chaos Angel.'" Knuckles shook his head, "I have no idea what any of this means."

"Then my point has been proven: You are ignorant and naïve." Finitevus stepped forward, his cape wrapped around him and grinned, "If you do not know what any of this says, then you have no chance of being the one that is chosen."

"YOU WANNA SAY THAT CLOSER TO MY FACE!?" Knuckles started to lunge at him, but Sonic held his arms to prevent him from advancing.

"Easy, Knux," he said, "he's just trying to get into your head." Finitevus looked up at the engraved scripture.

"'How do you find the connection? You must find the ones that make up the Angel, then follow their path down to the heart of where it began.' This riddle is for child's play," Finitevus stated, "It's meaning is obvious. I have been studying it for quite some time, and it has become blatantly clear what the solution is."

"Wait… What do you mean 'quite some time?'" Knuckles asked. Finitevus snickered.

"Why do you think I came to you in the first place? Why do you think I knew all about Rachel and her chaos powers? Why do you think I turned you into Enerjak again? Come now, isn't it clear enough for you? I learned about this riddle ever since Dr. Robotnik first created the Chaos Angel. I have been studying it for weeks, plotting how I would be able to use its power for my own purposes."

"Chaos Angel? You mean… Rachel?" Sonic asked curiously. Finitevus sighed and looked away with irritation.

"Allow me to explain this from the beginning: After the Guardian here threw me off of 'his' island and I broke my arm, I had to rethink things. For awhile, I did not have much of an idea as to what my next move should be. But just when I was ready to give up for a short while, I heard news of the Chaos Angel's birth.

"You see, the Chaos Angel was originally a myth about a creature that contained an unbelievable amount of chaos energy. It hadn't yet been proven that such a creature existed, but there was a rumor that there was a way to create it. At that time, I did not have the means to create it, but it became my mission to have it be mine so that I could manipulate it to my will. Fortunately for me, Dr. Robotnik did have what was necessary to make it. That was where your precious Rachel came in.

"After I collected information from Dr. Robotnik's laboratory, I discovered what his plans had been. He had wanted to use a human instead of a Mobian for this little project. He thought that he wouldn't have to deal with you so called 'heroes' if he found a human. When he had found a way to get to Earth, you fools were accidentally sucked in along with him. When he discovered that you had gotten close to a human, he found that it would be easier to use her as the bait. And, as you already know, she was caught and killed, but revived as the Chaos Angel with the combined power of Enerjak, the Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald, and the Brotherhood of Guardians. I watched it carefully with much curiosity. When I saw its power first hand, I was fascinated. The way that it could tear up everything around it, kill everyone around it, and cause nothing but absolute destruction and devastation. I yearned to control it. I was going to put my plan into action sooner, but Fiery had to interfere and send the two of you and it out to the rest of the universe to search for the Chaos Emeralds. That caused a major setback, but I knew I would have to wait patiently before I could see it up close. After you returned, I knew that that was the time to finally start my plan. It was even easier once it was on Angel Island with the Guardian. And you already know the rest… Although, I do have one confession about my whole plan. At first, I was sure that I wouldn't even be able to get anywhere near it. Part of the legend was that the Chaos Angel could manipulate those with chaos energy inside of them. Those with chaos energy were automatically hypnotized by it. I was surprised to learn that it was partially true. I could feel it's power try to take over me, but it wasn't as strong as I anticipated. And since I already knew that it would be easy to trick Knuckles, all I had to do was make sure that it had no idea who I was and-…"

"STOP CALLING HER IT!" Knuckles shouted. Sonic made no attempt to stop him when he grabbed Finitevus by the front of his cape. He felt the same anger he felt. He had been clenching his fists every time Finitevus referred to Rachel as "it". Knuckles slammed him against the wall, still keeping a firm grasp on him.

"HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT HER LIKE SHE'S SOME OBJECT! SHE'S A PERSON, NOT SOME PET YOU CAN COMMAND TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!" Finitevus grinned malevolently.

"Oh, but your precious Rachel is no more. Her body still remains, but her spirit is gone. She is nothing more than the Chaos Angel anymore. She is dead, and that creature has taken her place. It is a form that is meant to be controlled, manipulated, and that is all it is worth. It has gone too long without a leash."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" This time, it was Sonic who was letting his fury get the best of him. He glared at Finitevus as he continued to yell, "If she is nothing more than that stupid Chaos Angel, then why is it that she can remember everything that only Rachel could remember!? How come she still loves Knuckles and I like only Rachel could!? How come she hates it when she loses control of herself!? Don't talk about her like she's some creature that's gone wild! She's not! It may be true that that Chaos Angle thing takes over her every once in a while, but it's not taking control of her, Rachel's the one that talks to us and helps us, not some stupid new monster!"

Finitevus scoffed at him. "Believe what you want, that chaos monster's only purpose is to be controlled. It has no free will, and it will be controlled by me. You may have fallen in love with it, but my purpose is not to worship it, but to tame it." Knuckles couldn't take it anymore. His temper rushed to the boiling point. He felt as if he would explode if he held it back anymore. He threw Finitevus onto the wall on the other side of the room, marched over to him, then started picking him up and punching him as hard as he could. Every time he fell, Knuckles picked him right back up and continued punching him. His teeth were clenched the whole time as he continued to attack him in blind fury. He didn't even think about anything, he just let all of his anger out on the albino echidna like he was a punching bag. Sonic felt his fury boiling too. How could Finitevus stand there and grin as he talked about Rachel like she was some mongrel pup? He fists began to shake with anger, and he felt himself transform. Before he knew it, he was in his werehog form. His eyes wide in shock, he looked out of the square window that showed the outside. He gasped slightly as he noticed for the first time that they were in neither daytime or nighttime. There was just… nothing. The whole outside was white. He looked down at himself and wondered why he had turned into a werehog then…

_Maybe in this temple, instead of turning into a werehog at night, I turn into it when I'm really mad. _He let the thought escape his mind as he focused back on Knuckles beating up Finitevus. He clenched his fists and bared his fangs as he remembered what the insane scientist had said about Rachel. He ran forward and slammed him onto the wall. He started to pull his fist back when Finitevus let out a weak but cruel laugh.

"Ah, another example of a creature that deserves to be kept on a leash." Beyond feeling more furious than he had ever felt before, he launched his fist right at Finitevus' face. As Finitevus groaned and began to fall to the floor, everything went black, and they all felt themselves being torn apart and then being quickly reformed.


	7. Chapter 19, 20 and 21

Chapter Nineteen:

Sonic felt his head spinning. "How many times is this going to happen?" he moaned. He felt the slight, cool breeze brush past his midnight fur. The quiet, almost silent night was only disturbed by the chirping of crickets. The only thing that moved was the grass and trees, their slight swaying making Sonic feel like there was no such thing as destruction and devastation. Lightning bugs made their lights fade in and out several times. Sonic slowly stood up. The full moon made him feel better quicker than usual. He suddenly heard several loud booms comings closer to him. Thunder came bursting through the trees and barely stopped himself in time before running into Sonic.

"Dude, what happened!?" he practically yelled, "First, you leave to stop Enerjak, then some bright light goes off, then Finitevus and Knuckles are fighting, and THEN, another bright light goes off and all of you are gone. Then, yet another bright light goes off, and you're all back! I mean, come on, are all of the lights really necessary?" Sonic looked around the forest curiously.

"The others are back? Are you sure?"

"Well… I saw two other lights, and when I looked, Knuckles ended up on Angel Island, and Finitevus ended up in Downunda… HA HA! Get it!? _Up _in _Downunda!?_" Sonic glared at him impatiently. Thunder cleared his throat.

"I didn't see what happened to them after that. I think they were knocked for awhile just like you…" Sonic thought for several moments before saying anything. He slowly began to remember seeing Rachel in her still, crystal form…

"Rachel! Did you see Rachel at all!?" he asked hurriedly. Thunder scratched his head with his talon before slowly shaking his head. Sonic hung his head in disappointment. Then, a soft rustling in the bushes caught Sonic off guard. He looked over in alarm and saw a pair of green human eyes staring at him through the trees. The person gasped quickly before stumbling off deep into the forest.

"Hey!" Sonic yelled. He immediately ran after the person.

"Hey, where are you going?" Thunder asked. Sonic didn't reply. He was determined to find out who had been watching him. He quickly caught up to them as they were tripping over a branch. Sonic grabbed the stranger's arm and spun them around to find out that it wasn't a stranger at all… It was Rachel. Only, not the Rachel he had more recently seen. This was the Rachel that he had first met on Earth, not the one that had been brought back to life on Mobius.

"R-Rachel?" Sonic breathed, unable to believe his own eyes. His lover's fearful green eyes quickly turned calm again once he said her name. She smiled sweetly at him, tears filling in her eyes. She placed a soft hand on his face.

"Sonic…" she whispered, "I knew you'd find me again… I just knew you would." She placed her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Sonic's eyes were still wide in disbelief.

"Find you again…?" he asked. Finitevus' dark words rang back in his mind. _Oh, but your precious Rachel is no more. Her body still remains, but her spirit is gone. She is nothing more than the Chaos Angel anymore. _Was what he said true? Was the Rachel he thought he knew gone? Was this the true Rachel, and that other one nothing more than an imitation? He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her in front of him.

"Have you been that real Rachel all this time? Was that other person I thought was Rachel and imposture?" Rachel shook her head.

"Sonic, you need to understand something. You never treated her like an actual person. You thought of her differently after the Chaos Angel was born inside of her. You need to remember that she is no different now than she was when she was… well, like me." Sonic stared at her blankly.

"What does that mean?" Rachel held his hand tight in hers.

"I am the Rachel you left behind after the Chaos Angel was born. You've lost sight of me after that. Instead, you created a new Rachel, a different Rachel."

"How did I do that?"

"You thought that she wasn't strong enough to take care of herself," she said, looking down sadly. "She felt broken, weak. She had to find me again by herself. But she wasn't able to on her own with the Chaos Angel taking over her at certain points. But once Knuckles acknowledged that she could take care of herself, she was able to recover, to find me again." She smiled up at him. "And now you've found me. You can help save her now that you've finally done that."

"Save her…?" he thought about the riddle he had found engraved on the stone pillars. "You mean, now that I've found the real Rachel, at least, the one that's been lost, I can help save her before she gets stuck in crystal forever?" Rachel smiled and nodded at him.

"Yes, with me, you may be the one that is chosen." She closed her eyes and kissed him on the cheek. "Never lose sight of me when you look into her eyes, and you will be chosen." She stepped away from him and gently let go of his hand. She slowly started to fade away.

"Hey, wait!" Sonic urged stepping towards her, but she disappeared, yet Sonic could swear that he still felt her presence surrounding him. He took a deep breath and smiled at the sky.

"Don't worry, Rachel, I will never lose sight of who you really are ever again," he promised.

Chapter Twenty:

Knuckles held his head in his hands and slowly rose to his feet. He felt the world spinning around him as he tried to regain his memory. The temple… Rachel stuck in crystal… the riddle… Finitevus' mysterious story about the Chaos Angel… him beating Finitevus to a pulp… (He smiled at this last memory). He shook his head several times to clear his mind. He had to focus on how to solve that riddle in order to save Rachel. He looked over and noticed the Master Emerald shrine to his left.

_Well, this is definitely a good place to start, _he thought. He looked around at his home and sat on the stone steps. How was he supposed to solve that riddle? If only he could remember everything it had said… He barely remembered any of it… Suddenly, he heard a male voice chanting, "'How do you find the connection? You must find the ones that make up the Angel, then follow their path down to the heart of where it began.'" Knuckles slowly looked up and into the eyes of the former Guardian at the bottom of the steps. His eyes widened in shock, his jaw dropping. His eyes burned from the tears that were forming.

"D-dad?" He choked. Locke stayed where he was.

"Son…" he said softly, "You must not let your emotions get the best of you in crucial moments. If you do, then terrible things will happen to you and those you care about."

"Like what happened to you?" Knuckles sniffed.

"No, Knuckles," Locke said, "what happened to me happened because I chose to die for you. It is not your fault."

"But if I wouldn't have turned into Enerjak, then you wouldn't have had to make that choice!" Knuckles yelled. He put his face in his hands and shook his head furiously. "It's all my fault… It's all my fault…" Locke walked up the steps and placed his hands on his son's shoulders.

"It is not your fault, Knuckles, please stop saying thinking that," he begged. "I made the mistake of treating you horribly when you were just a child. I experimented on you because I thought it was what was best for you, but it's ended up doing nothing more than causing you trouble and pain. I made a horrible mistake, and it was my fault. And I…" He looked down in shame, then took a deep breath. "I almost killed you while you were Enerjak the last time." Knuckles took his hands away from his face and looked at his father in disbelief.

"Y-you did?" he asked, his voice shaking. Locke closed his eyes and nodded slowly.

"That has been my greatest regret in my life. I tried to make up for it by sacrificing my life, but I can never truly make it up to you, that I know for sure. I am truly sorry."

He sat by Knuckles' side and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. "I have never been a true father. And I know that the last time we talked before I died wasn't the most pleasant, but I know that you need me now, and as your father, I will not let you down. I will watch over you and help you to the best of my abilities. Please, let me help you." Knuckles looked down at his shoes, contemplating on how to deal with everything. Was his father really alive, or was this just another trick? He decided that he didn't care. As long as he could to his father for as much time as possible, he didn't care. He turned towards him and nodded.

"Where do we begin with this riddle?"

Locke spent several hours explaining to Knuckles how he should think about every aspect of the riddle. Which parts were important, and which parts didn't need to be touched.

"You already know what makes up the Chaos Angel, correct?" Knuckles nodded.

"Energy from the Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald, Enerjak, and the Brotherhood of Guardians."

"Very good. It is extremely crucial that you remember that. That is the most important information you need to solve this riddle. Now, do you know what connects all of these things?" Knuckles thought about this question a little more thoroughly.

"Well… The Master Emerald was originally a Chaos Emerald, Enerjak was formed from Dmitri, who is an enemy of the Guardians, and the Brotherhood created the Master Emerald." Locke nodded.

"Yes, very good. Now, I cannot tell you what the solution to the riddle is, but I'm sure that from this point, you will be able to solve it on your own. Good luck, my son." Locke stepped back down the steps and slowly started to fade away. Knuckles scrambled to his feet and ran after him.

"Please, don't leave!" Locke finally faded completely away. Knuckles fell to the ground on his and knees in sorrow. But just as a small tear left his eyes, he saw, laying there on the ground where his father had vanished, was his tiny charm that had a small gem tied to it.

Chapter Twenty-One:

Finitevus slowly opened his eyes. He got to his feet and looked at the abandoned town of Downunda. He looked up at Angel Island and grinned banefully.

"Try as hard as you please, you cannot escape the inevitable," he said to the sky.

"I am not avoiding the inevitable, Doctor," a female voice said, "but I am trying to make sure that you don't get back to me first." Finitevus turned around and saw a purple echidna staring at him. He laughed.

"Ah, Gala-Na," he said with a slight bow, "how good it is to see you back from the dead."

Gala-Na shot back, "I have never been able to truly rest in peace because you never got justice for what you did."

"What I did? You and the rest of that pitiful city did it to yourselves! If only you could've seen it my way… Then maybe I wouldn't have had to burn your prized city to the ground…"

"ALBION WAS YOUR HOME TOO UNTIL YOU BETRAYED US!" she yelled. Finitevus laughed menacingly.

"Oh, come now, was it really my home, or did you purposely have me create chaos siphon suit at the last second in order to get rid of me?"

"I would never-…"

"You knew perfectly well what the cost would be of creating something like that to stop something as powerful as Chaos Knuckles! What you didn't count on was my newfound powers being able to destroy the remains of that dreadful city. And now that it lies in ruins, the rest of the echidnas can find refuge there until they learn their place."

Gala-Na began shaking with fury. "You and your so called 'better ideas' have done nothing but cause people pain and suffering! The world cannot be fixed by simply burning it to the ground and building it from scratch!"

"Once I have the Chaos Angel in my grasp, my plans will go a lot quicker than before," he stated. "Then I will truly show you that you and your 'scientific reasoning' was never a prosperous idea of fixing the world either. This is world is too corrupt for you and the rest of those half-witted echidnas to understand. When someone tells the people of this world that everything is ok, they just go along with it, like lost sheep. But you're dead, so I suppose you shouldn't about this anyhow, am I right?"

"You-you-YOU B-…!"

"Watch your tongue, Gala-Na," he said hatefully, "and have respect for the one who will do what you and your city could not. Yes, I say your city, because Albion was never a home to me, even before my revelation."

Gala-Na glared at him and said, "I agree. Albion is not your home anymore. I hope you get burned by your own creation someday." She faded away into the wind. Finitevus grinned and laughed wrathfully. He looked up at the sky again.

"So, that is the form you chose to try and prevent me from getting to me first, Chaos Angel? I wonder what forms you chose to try and help the Guardian and the hedgehog…"


	8. Last Chapters: Chapter 22 and Epilogue

Chapter Twenty-Two:

Sonic back to his house and gathered up all seven Chaos Emeralds. He went back outside and placed all of the emeralds in front of him. He let all of them circle around him and begin to take him away. As he started to teleport, he whispered, "Please, take me back to Rachel and help me free her." He saw the green fields around him turn into the stone walls of the temple.

Knuckles took a slow, deep breath as he walked all the way up the steps to the Master Emerald. He put his arms in the air and thought hard about the temple as he chanted, "Chaos Control!" The emerald lit up as he started to evaporate into the air.

Finitevus pulled out a warp ring and flipped it into the air. When it opened up, he stepped inside and placed his feet onto the temple floor. He looked around in shock as he realized that he was the first one there. He laughed wickedly and grinned at the altar.

"Your feeble attempts at stopping me have been wasted! Finally, your powers shall be mine forever!" He laughed again as he walked up the steps.

Sonic and Knuckles arrived simultaneously alongside each other. They were just in time to hear Finitevus chanting, "The servants are the Seven chaos. Chaos is power controlled by my will. The controller exists to enslave the chaos." His hands started to turn black as the chaos power slowly started to make its way throughout the temple. Sonic and Knuckles turned towards each other and silently nodded. They both rushed up and tackled the evil scientist to the ground before the crystal started to crack. The darkness slowly subsided, and Sonic and Knuckles started to fight off the albino echidna before he could escape or try to release Rachel again. With their combine force, they managed to slam him against the wall several times and knock him out. They both panted in both exhaustion and relief. Sonic slowly stood up straight and smiled at Knuckles.

"I wonder how often we're going to have to fight this creep." Knuckles laughed.

"Well, hopefully we won't have to much after this." He looked up at Rachel's crystal form. "Hey, Sonic," he said.

"Yeah?" He looked at Knuckles curiously. Knuckles continued to stare at the crystal, refusing to meet Sonic eyes.

"I mean, we both solved the riddle, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, who gets to release Rachel?" Sonic gazed at the ground, refusing to answer.

"I mean, we could just have a battle to decide who gets the honors, right?" Knuckles joked. Sonic looked at him with dead seriousness.

"I don't think that will be necessary Knux," he said. Knuckles turned around and gave him a questioning look.

"What do you mean?"

This time, Sonic was the one that stared at Rachel. "You should be the one to release her."

Knuckles' eyes widened in sudden shock. He stepped back, his jaw dropped slightly.

"Wh-what did you say?" Sonic smiled weakly at him.

"You deserve her, Knux. I mean, you can handle her power a lot better than I can. Besides, she needs you to be there for her when she loses control of herself. You need her powers more than I do."

"But… What about all of those times you fought so hard for her? Are all of those days over? Are you just going to forget how much you love her, and how much she loves you? Even if I do release her, she will always love you just as much, and we might as well be right where we began: fighting over Rachel!"

"Knux, you know that I will always love Rachel with all of my heart, and I know that she will always love me, but it's better this way. I know we were never able to truly settle our fight over her, but that's ok. We can settle it now."

"By just giving up!?" Knuckles protested. "Dude, you realize that Rachel will never really be able to accept that, right!?"

"That's why I don't want you to tell her… It would be best if she didn't know."

Knuckles opened his mouth to say something else, but the words wouldn't come out. Why was Sonic giving up on Rachel all of a sudden? It was as if he had been waiting for the conflict to be over. "Why now? Why now when our feud is at its climax?"

Sonic shrugged. "I guess you could say that I'm tired of it in a way. It made Rachel stressed out most of the time, it made us fight a lot, and it made us totally lose sight of what was going on in front of us. I'm definitely going to miss her, and this probably isn't the way you expected this battle to end, but I think it's what's best for us and Rachel. Don't you agree?"

Knuckles nodded slightly. "If you're sure…"

"I'm positive." Knuckles hesitated for a moment before turning around and heading up the stairs to the altar. Once he stood in front of Rachel. He turned back towards Sonic. He was determinedly staring at the floor.

"Sonic I-…" Sonic smiled slightly. Finitevus started to slowly regain his consciousness. He growled as he noticed the scene unfolding in front of him.

"Save it, buddy. Just promise me you won't tell her about this." Knuckles nodded.

"I promise. I will never-…" Finitevus quickly leapt to his feet and tried to run up to stop Knuckles, but Sonic spin-dashed him to the ground. They both got up quickly.

"Knux, do it, now!" Finitevus opened a warp ring under his feet, but Sonic jumped out of it and spin-dashed him again. Knuckles turned nervously back to Rachel's crystal form. He put his arms in the air.

"The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power enriched by the heart. The controller exists to unify the chaos." Green chaos energy emitted from Knuckles' hands. The room started to glow green as well. Behind him, Knuckles could hear Finitevus trying to stop him, but Sonic made sure that he wasn't able to. Suddenly, a giant crack appeared in the crystal. It grew larger and larger, and soon it was branched out all over. As the cracks grew wider, a white light started to shine through. Knuckles shut his eyes tight and shielded the intense light with his hands. When the light dimmed, he slowly opened his eyes and put his hands down slightly. All of the crystal had shattered and fallen to the ground in front of him. Rachel was lying on the stone table, as if asleep. Knuckles held her hand in his.

"Rachel?" Rachel's eyes carefully fluttered open. She steadily sat up and groaned slightly. She looked at Knuckles and smiled.

"Knuckles," she whispered. She placed one of her soft hands on his white-crest birthmark on his chest. Her eyes glowed bright as she said, "My power is yours to control." Knuckles saw a small orb of light enter his body. He felt huge amounts of chaos energy flow through his veins. He took a deep breath. Rachel put her hands on his face, her eyes no longer glowing, but instead full of tears of joy. She smiled at him and said, "I am yours forever." Knuckles placed a hand on her face wiped her tears off of her cheeks. He turned around and saw that Sonic and Finitevus were nowhere in sight.

Epilogue:

"Do you, Knuckles the Echidna, take Rachel Krause whom you hold by the right hand to be your lawful and wedded wife?"

"I do," Knuckles said, feeling happier than he had ever felt in his life. The beautiful pink flowers on the trees surrounding the ceremony swaying slightly. The sunset that silhouetted Angel Island made the day perfect.

"Do you promise to love, to cherish, to honor to protect, forsaking all others, in sickness as well as in health. In adversity as well as in prosperity. For better or for worse, and to cleave only to her so long as you both shall live?"

"I do." The pastor turned to Rachel.

"Do you, Rachel Krause, take Knuckles the Echidna to be your lawful and wedded husband?"

"I do," Rachel said, a small tear rolling out of her eye. She smiled brighter than she ever had before. She felt as if she was glowing in a sleeveless white dress with a rose pattern formed into the fabric on her waist. The gown went down way past her feet and she had bodice ruching. Her white veil was made of a transparent silk that was embroidered with tiny flowers.

"Do you promise to love, to cherish, to honor, to obey, forsaking all others, in sickness as well as in health, in adversity as well as in prosperity, for better or for worse, and to cleave only to him so long as you both shall live?"

"I do." He turned back towards Knuckles. "You may now kiss the bride." Knuckles placed both of his hands on Rachel's face and gently pressed his lips against hers in a passionate kiss. Rachel wrapped her arms around him and savored every moment of it.

Once the ceremony was over, Knuckles picked Rachel up and brought her to the edge of the island. He kept her in his arms, never wanting to let her go. She placed her head on his chest.

"So Rachel, are you getting used to your permanent home?" he asked. Rachel closed her eyes and smiled.

"Yes. I have a feeling I'll never want to leave this island."

"I'll never let anything hurt you ever again," he stated. "I love you."

"I love you too," Rachel replied. She brought her head up slightly and kissed him again. They had no idea how long they stayed alone with each other, but one thing was for sure. They both enjoyed every moment of it, and vowed once again to never leave each other.

Sonic watched the ceremony with a mixture of happiness for Rachel and Knuckles, but sorrow that he may never see Rachel again. Thunder was sitting next to him. He looked at him questioningly.

"Are you sure you're ok with this?" Sonic nodded, but felt somewhat uncertain.

"Yeah. It's better like this." Thunder sighed.

"So, what are you going to do now that you don't have to fight with Knuckles over Rachel anymore?" Sonic shrugged.

"I don't know, fight Eggman, save the world, challenge Jet to a race, the usual hero stuff."

"Speaking of which, whatever happened to Egghead, do you know?"

"Well, I know that Shadow got teleported somewhere near his base after the Enerjak fight. Luckily for us, he stopped Eggman from reaching the temple where Rachel was kept so that we wouldn't have to deal with him too."

"And Finitevus?" Sonic shook his head.

"Don't know. He pushed me through his warp ring, I dragged him along with me, then he went through another warp ring, and I haven't seen him since."

"Guess that could mean more trouble for Knuckles and Rachel, right?" Sonic nodded. "Yep, but Knux can handle it." He smiled at he saw Knuckles and Rachel walking away towards the edge of the island. "He has someone important to protect."

"That makes him a double Guardian then, right?" Thunder joked. Sonic laughed.

"Yep." He looked towards the sunset and stood up. "Come on, let's get back before nighttime." He grinned and ran off the island, Thunder following close on his heels. They both hit the ground and ran off as fast as their legs could take them.

END OF BOOK 3!


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